Michelle Obama's clothes cost how much? WH won't spill

Give it up for the Associated Press: Its intrepid reporter tried to suss out details about who pays for stylish first lady Michelle Obama’s clothes and got…well, not very much.

The White House CAN keep a secret, and one of its most closely held is how much FLOTUS spends per year on her fabulous duds, ranging from haute couture to J Crew.

Reporter Nancy Benac went in search of facts and found pretty much what we already knew: Mrs. O pays for most of her clothes, not the taxpayers, but she usually gets good discounts. She doesn’t borrow gowns from designers but sometimes accepts them as gifts to the nation, as she did the dramatic blue Carolina Herrera gown she wore in February to the state dinner for France.

And the price tag for all this is not for public scrutiny.

“The financing of the first lady’s wardrobe is something that the Obama White House is loath to discuss,” Benac reported. “It’s a subject that has bedeviled presidents and their wives for centuries. First ladies are expected to dress well, but the job doesn’t come with a clothing allowance or a salary.”

Still, she presented a factoid that suggests the scope: In recent weeks, Obama wore three outfits that would cost about $15,000 retail, not counting shoes and jewelry: A stunning, lacy forest-green Naeem Khan dress at a museum opening in New York, a shimmering silver Marchesa gown at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, and a pretty flowered shirtdress for a tea with military moms at the White House.

How does she afford it? For one thing, Obama follows the frugal habits of Duchess Kate of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton: Recycle, recycle, recycle.